100 Years of History Comes Alive At Canadian Prep School with the Aid of Christie Technology

Appleby College, an Oakville, Ontario-based prep school, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary with the aid of 26 Christie HD10K-M 3-chip DLP projectors installed and managed by Metalworks Production Group, a live event company.

With the projectors installed 18-feet high in a 360-degree circle around the interior of Appleby Arena, Metalworks knew the concept presented challenges in drafting and designing the rigging. According to Mitch Mazerolle, technical director, Metalworks Production Group, 26 projectors flown at precise distances from the 360-degree surface made it a challenge to get the lens throw exact for the fixed lenses.

“We were dealing with a low-ceiling hockey rink and several projectors so everything was very tight. Given the configuration and height, we knew the edge blending needed to be precise but I spoke extensively with Geoff Chick (central and western regional sales manager, Christie) and John Hallman (senior manager, regional sales, Christie) and they helped immensely,” said Andrew McLaren, video department manager, Metalworks. “Metalworks is extremely pleased with the flexibility and powerful nature of the (embedded) Christie Twist technology. The blending and warping worked perfectly, making for a visually stimulating and tastefully done presentation.”

Christie Twist enables full image warping and advanced edge blending through the control of a powerful and easy to use Graphic User Interface. Users can expertly control edge-blended multiple curved images seamlessly. Images can be warped to fit virtually any dimension or shape display with perfect pixel-to-pixel alignment.

With a century of Appleby College history to look back upon, three era-specific segments – including photos dating back to 1912 – were displayed. The first era featured memories from the school’s 1912 opening until the end of the 1940s with the second part covering the 1950s through the 1980s. The third part featured the 1990s to the present. The college contributed archival footage and Metalworks assembled digitally animated content segments – including digitally animated photos. Superimposed over the photos was custom-made animation. Bob Spencer, President of Metalworks, pitched the 360-degree blend concept for the show and the client was both immediately interested and extremely happy with the outcome.

“Metalworks is a Canadian company and it was a big plus to use a locally manufactured product. In fact, Metalworks is looking to increase its relationship with Christie and having its manufacturing facility just down the road is a big plus for us,” said McLaren. “We know there are other companies out there but for us, the dominoes all fell in the right place and the only logical choice was Christie. We’ve worked with Christie before and Christie products are reliable; we had 26 Christie projectors going and didn’t have to touch them for any reason. That is huge.”

“Considering everything Christie has to offer, it was a no-brainer to work with the company,” Mazerolle concluded. “For the price and ability to do what was required, the Christie HD10K-M projectors provided the idea solution. We are truly impressed with the capabilities of the technology and Christie made us look great.”